I cannot believe it, but I survived being a single momma of 3 with a newborn. My baby turned 5 months old, she is growing at such a rapid rate. I must be honest; I am not sure how I did it. The first 3 months were a big fog, taking care of all the kids by myself with no help. It took a lot of sleepless nights.
Breastfeeding this time around has been rough, which is an understatement. The baby’s latch was horrible until about three months old. It felt like someone pulled my nipple out with plier and lit them on fire. It was toe curling pain for quite some time. I was ready to quit breastfeeding multiple times. Thankfully, I stuck it out and now breastfeeding is easy. I got rid of the nipple shield by three months.
I have such a good baby. She is so easy not a fussy baby at all. She started sleeping throughout the night months three through five. Now she is waking a few times each night. She started drooling excessively at 11 weeks, her doctor said she is teething. Here at five months her teeth have not come in yet. With continued efforts I am hopeful she will start sleeping all night again very soon, maybe once those first teeth appear this momma can get some sleep.
I am proud to say I did it. I remember when I was pregnant thinking it is a lot of work running two businesses and taking care of my other two kids, I knew once the baby arrived life would get harder. Being self-employed has allowed me to be able to take care of my children all by myself. I work around their school and daycare schedules. After a long pregnancy and horrible separation from my husband, crying almost every day…. I finally feel like me again. The me I lost when I was with my husband. The happy and independent me. I have broken out of the “how am I going to do it and survive” mentality when I was pregnant. I knew I could do just was not sure how well I emerged into an unstoppable woman and got it done.
Despite these physical changes of having a third baby I feel good! I have about fifteen pounds to go in losing all my 36 lbs. of baby weight. I was dropping weight pretty fast the first three months then I started to gain weight in month four and now in month five I have maintained.
Obviously I have more weight to lose so I have incorporated some working out at home as I can fit in. I was doing low carb Keto with intermittent fasting that was working then I got tired of it. My other pregnancies I had got back to my pre-pregnancy weight within a few months. This time is different, it is like my body is stock piling. I do not like it, so I am going to have to start counting calories. Just another thing to add to my plate each day however it is the only thing that is going to get this weight off. I am uncomfortable in my body. Yes, I am still nursing the baby however I am not interested in being overweight like this.
I need to update the baby book. Days go by so fast I have not updated it in over a month. Making memories and spending time with my girls has been my top priority. I will get to the baby book I just need to add it to my to do list.
My Lakelynn is the happiest baby, smiley, loving and predictable which is great for this planner of a momma. The only time she cries is in her crib at night time, I think she gets scared and knows I am not in there so she has to cry to get my attention.
During the day when she wakes up in her crib she usually talks to herself then cries if I don’t get her. She only poops every other day. All though she is starting to poop once a day now at five months.
She looks like her dad. She had his round head, chunky cheeks, his dimple, no neck, his flat feet, and her eyes are brown with a little blue hue in them. As much as she looks like him for some reason, I see myself when I look into her eyes. She is all my baby.
Lakelynn is starting to recognize voices she knows if it is her momma or sisters talking to her. You can say something to her and if she cannot see you, she will turn her head until she sees the person talking. She is very alert. She is expressive with her eyebrows; I love talking to her and see her thinking with her eyebrows. I have never seen a baby do that before, my older two not do that. She loves a good swaddle and her swing.
I enjoy it most when I am rocking her with my finger in the palm of her tiny hand. Looking at her holding my hand and creating that mother daughter bond. Absorbing every minute of it because I know those little
hands will grow into big girl hands very soon.
The days go by fast and the years are short, but I can finally begin to savor every moment. Cheers to me!